The present invention relates to an electric luminescence fiber with stabilized shape.
An electric luminescence fiber (ELF) is conventionally produced as follows (referring to FIG. 9): Into a linear flexible substance, electric luminescence powder is placed and electrode wires 3 are arranged to produce a linear electric luminescence fiber 1. Further, this is covered with a colored tube 2. Voltage is applied between the electrode wires, and electric field is generated. Then, light is emitted from the fiber. In this case, color of the emitted light is determined by the color of the colored tube 2. By changing the color of the colored tube, lights with different colors can be emitted.
Another type of ELF has been proposed in JP-A-6-236797. Electrode wires are designed in shape of stranded wires. Electric luminescence powder is dispersed in epoxy resin, and this is placed in a spirally shaped space between the stranded wires. By increasing the percentage of the electric luminescence powder to emit light, the light emitting amount is increased and brighter ELF can be obtained.
A different type of ELF is proposed in JP-A-11-102782. When ELF is used alone, it is inferior in terms of strength, mountability, water resistance, light amount, decorative performance, etc. For this reason, ELF is placed spirally on or into inner surface of a transparent or semi-transparent tubular hose member, which has flexibility and elasticity.
ELF is flexible, and it is suitable for applications such as neon advertisement or decorative purposes and it is used by designing it in form of letters, characters, numerics, or many other shapes. However, ELF itself cannot maintain stabilized shape. When it is attempted to use it for neon advertisement or decorative purposes, it is necessary to maintain and stabilize the shape by supporting ELF by some means, and this has caused difficulties in the use of ELF in the past. To obtain brighter ELF, the coated electric luminescence powder should be placed in a spiral space, which is formed by stranded wires (electrode wires). However, the manufacturing procedure is complicated, and it also involves higher cost.
The method to place ELF spirally on or into inner surface of a tubular hose member also results in complicated manufacturing procedure and high cost.
To solve the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an ELF, which can be maintained in any form as desired and can be used in wider applications and which has high functions and can be produced in simple manufacturing process and at lower cost.
The present invention provides an electric luminescence fiber, which comprises a flexible electric luminescence substance produced by arranging electrode wires in electric luminescence powder, said electric luminescence substance being coated with thermoplastic resin, thermosetting resin or UV-setting resin, said coated resin is hardened and stabilized in linear or any desired shape, and the electric luminescence substance inside the coated resin is maintained in said linear or any desired shape.
Also, the present invention provides an electric luminescence fiber, which comprises a flexible electric luminescence substance produced by arranging electrode wires in electric luminescence powder, said electric luminescence substance being coated with thermoplastic resin, thermosetting resin or UV-setting resin, said coated resin is hardened and is wound up in coil-like shape or in spirally stranded shape and is stabilized, and the electric luminescence substance inside the coated resin is maintained in coil-like shape or spiral shape.
Further, the present invention provides the electric luminescence fiber as described above, wherein said electric luminescence substance is maintained in a shape to simulate an object or in a shape to express letters, characters, numerics, a series of characters, or a series of numerics.
Also, the present invention provides the electric luminescence fiber as described above, wherein the electric luminescence fiber is wound up on a jig of a predetermined shape, the entire shape is stabilized, and the substance is cut for each unit to be designed in a predetermined shape.